The group plans to seek funding to continue
the work, and hopes to test potential toilet
designs as well as a second option that Clair
calls a “defecation garden.” The garden is a
fairly recent idea to provide a safer and more
pleasant outdoor experience for the many
Indians unlikely to give up the practice of OD.

Gardens would be built on designated strips ofland with raised sidewalks and special areaswhere visitors could defecate more safely andprivately than alongside a road or in an openfield. The sidewalk would allow villagers toremain elevated above waste, Clair explains.

The team could then examine if “having a
choice between outdoor defecation gardens,
OD without health precautions, and home
latrines would provide the freedom and
choice desired and, whether that combination
would help reduce defecation-related disease,”
she says.

Clair is aware of the potential for failurewhen mandates are handed down from onhigh, and relies on another co-investigator,Professor and Head of the Department ofPolitical Science Rosie Clawson, to provideexpertise in public policy. The team wants toensure that any policy recommendations itmakes are backed by evidence that the policiesare effective. There’s one idea, however, thatthey’ve already demonstrated: the world’sgrand challenges require the expertise andtechniques of many liberal arts disciplines—often in collaboration with experts in science,technology, and engineering—as we searchfor the best solutions.

By Barry Montgomery.

Rahul Rastogi, doctoral candidate in the Brian Lamb School of Communication and an assistant professor at Western Illinois University, conducts focus
groups about latrine facilities and the practice of open defecation with residents of Kumbhdaura, a village in the Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh, India.
Rastogi often started with a small group, but other community members passing by would join to share their views. Photo courtesy of Rahul Rastogi.